The Human Beings have inhabited nearly all habitable parts of the planet now. The disciplines of Geography, History, Sociology, Economics & Planning has produced tremendous stories of his imagination & creative potential. There are stories of individuals on one hand & there are collective stories of Human Settlements on the other which are not an outcome of instant development rather a testament of Human Skills of settling his settlement brick by brick over multiple generations.

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Thursday, April 10, 2014

Mega Cities : The Dense Human Settlements

With
the advent growth in the rate of population with the process of urbanization
running parallel to it and that too at an accelerated pace, especially in the developing
nations, has led the population to concentrate densely in some urban regions which
are generally termed to as ‘Megacities’. The rise of human civilizations from
smaller units to the concepts of ‘megacities’ and ‘global cities’ has brought
in some drastic changes to the settlement patterns of the race of humanity.

In
terms of population a megacity can be defined as an urban region with a
population more than 10 million. New York Metro area was the world’s largest
urban agglomeration till Tokyo passed it in the 1950’s. Tokyo-Yokohama area
with a population of around 37 million tops the current list of megacities
followed by Jakarta, Seoul-Incheon, Delhi, Shanghai and Manila. The trend has
dominatingly shifted to the developing world as far as in terms of number of
megacities are concerned. The other three western urban regions except New York in
the list of 28 megacities are Moscow, Los Angeles and Paris. The Asian region will experience the greatest share of population concentration as illustrated below.

Megacities
have become the nodal point of Global economy which is generally characterized
by dense settlements. There are some points which while preparing plans for
these megacities should be kept in consideration for elongating the life span
of these urban regions. The
tendency for cities to prioritise economic development over environmental
sustainability – to get rich first than worrying about becoming clean –
could be an environmental disaster in the context of megacities and at the
scale that exists today.

Cities
are a part of the various natural systems which have their carrying capacities –
going beyond may prove degradation and result in the inefficiency of them over
a period of them. For developing megacities it would be far more beneficial if
they widen there vision while dealing with the planning exercise of their upcoming megacities.

One
other factor which is very significant is the geographical location of the
cities – megacities lying on various coastlines will be affected the most if
the phenomenon of the ever-changing climatic changes is taken into consideration. There have
been studies relating the increase in the sea levels and cities like Mumbai
have been predicted to get suffered from it drastically. The city authorities
and departments have to take some crucial steps in this relation as these
cities now holds in a handsome amount of economic cost of themselves.

‘Mature’
megacities in developed countries have considerable resources to spend on
things like renewable energy, waste management, healthcare, transportation
infrastructure, crime-fighting etc. Developing megacities, on the other hand,
not only have fewer resources but are also characterised by social dynamics that,
in combination with this comparative resource paucity, can further amplify
risks: fast population growth, including a lot of immigration. Developing
megacities though also have a brighter chance to learn from the mistakes
performed by the mature cities in the past. Governance is also needed to be varied differentially as these cities, structurally and
behaviour-wise are different than the earlier metro cities of yesteryear and
those in development. The governing authorities need to work dynamically to
provide the best they can to their citizens.

Megacities
are prone to emerging various risks – governance issues, ecological issues,
issues related with the quality of life that a human deserves, social issues,
economic issues to name a few. These cities are amongst the most dynamic places
of this planet and hence their developmental process should be wisely outlined. Megacities
also hold in a risk of Shrinking over a period of time. The
quicker flow of goods, knowledge and money in megacities has the potential to
optimise efficiency, use resources more effectively and increase flexibility
and adaptive capacity. The blog will try to cover the various aspects related
with different megacities – there growth plans and roadmap, development
policies and urban issues related with them in the coming posts.

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Author

I'm a keen observer of natural processes and man-made systems with good grasping ability and analysing skills. I love reading and learning about different disciplines which has showered my being with an inter-disciplinary perspective. I'm an Architect and a Human Development Planner by education and a knowledge enthusiast by nature. One thought poster of my room says, 'Explore your ideas and be Creative, Little things make the real Change'.